WRFP399

Nevermind. After hours of looking I found it. I also downloaded the most current versions of the programming software for most of Vertex's HT and mobile radios. I downloaded the export version which allows programming of wideband for GMRS. If anyone needs one let me know.

Does anyone have this software or somewhere it can be downloaded? I can't seem to find it.

When is it and what hub is it on?

This isn't a jab at you it's just something I noticed in general. Every city in the US has some kind of claim to fame about how they are such a valuable target to attack. Heck, Anchorage thinks it's some major strategic target b/c the airport serves as a layover for a large percentage of air cargo coming from Asia. IMO the biggest threats which could threaten society as a whole in order of likeliness would be natural disaster, economic disaster, and societal unrest. Nuclear and dirty bombs are unlikely from a sovereign state but there is the off chance of terrorists. I don't have any hard and fast fact to back this but terrorists always seems to go for the target that will give the largest hit to moral of a country. These cities tend to be symbolic, think NYC, LA etc. "Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport is a major cargo hub.[28] In 2020, it ranked as the United States' third-busiest airport and the world's fourth-busiest airport by cargo traffic. A reason is that cargo aircraft between China or Japan and the US prefer to have less fuel and more cargo and refuel on the way.[29] FedEx Express and UPS Airlines operate major hubs at Anchorage International for cargo heading to and from the Far East.[24] NWA Cargo used to operate a major hub at the airport until December 28, 2009 when it closed all operations for Northwest Cargo at all airports. FedEx Express is the airport's largest cargo facility and can handle as many as 13,400 packages per hour, employing more than 1,200 people and providing a full customs clearance system. United Parcel Service's hub handles about 5,000 parcels per hour. Both companies forecast a large growth in traffic over the next several years as trade with China and other Far East countries increases and plan to expand their Anchorage facilities comparatively.[citation needed] The United States Postal Service also operates a large sectional center facility (SCF) for the 995xx ZIP Codes. It processes mail and parcels headed to and from all Alaska cities. The United States Department of Transportation allows Anchorage and other Alaskan airports to be used as a transfer point for cargo between different aircraft of the same foreign air carrier without applying for special permission, a privilege not available at airports on the US mainland." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Stevens_Anchorage_International_Airport

Pretty sure there are a few "Private" MyGMRS nets on the map. You can see them but you can't link to them. There is one near Harrisburg PA. I tried to link to it to see if I could but no joy.

Woah. $400? Seems like a lot for an analog UHF radio?

This noid isn't connected to a hub. It's only connected to the two others but it will show you what I mean by "red"

The national hub isn't connected to any of the other hubs right now so there is nothing to listen to. Watch the map and find a regional hub with a nodes that show "Red" which means they are transmitting. Listen to that hub. Hub 169 is pretty active.

Having a radio that can just push out location information would be nice for me. When backcountry hiking with a group sometimes we end up splitting up. If someone finds something interesting its easier to just read off the location vs calling it out. Even if the radio only gives me lat/long or UTM coordinates that would work for me. It's not a make or break thing. If we were really getting crazy I would love if someone could make a plug in for OsmAnd where I can use the radio as a means to send data back and forth similar to ATAK. I use OsmAnd all the time when hiking and that would be super nice. I know we can't legally do that on GMRS now but I would be more than happy to give up one of the 1-7 frs/gmrs channels for data use....heck I guess we could just use MURS...

Do everything you can to keep the panel in full sun. I chose a sealed lead acid battery. It is an AGM. I went with lead acid because they are forgiving with cold temperature charging. I went with sealed so I could transport it without the worry if leaks. You also need to match the charger to the battery. You can't charge a lithium battery with a controller for a lead acid.

It depends on your climate and how much use it will see. The RT97 draws about 2 amps on high power and .09 amps when in stand-by. I am running an RT97 on solar power here in Alaska. During the summer when we have lots of sun a 9 amp hour battery and 30 watt panel do just fine. Everytime I checked on it the battery was at 100% capacity. During the winter we have a few issues that make it more difficult. During winter solstice there is only around 4 hours of sunlight. We also have cold weather to deal with. Drop a lead acid battery to around 0 degrees F and you are down to around 80% of its capacity. Last winter I had it running on a 30 watt panel and a 14 amp hour battery. It wasn't enough. By November the battery was already being run down to the cut off voltage of 11.2 volts. 75% of last November the repeater was down. We didn't have enough snow to prevent me from getting to the site so I was able to get to it and swap it battery out for a 9 amp hour one I had. Yes it is smaller but I wanted to save the larger, more expensive, battery from damage. It lasted for about a week before going down again. I would come back up after a week or two for a few days and then go down again. From there it only got worse. The solar controller shut down the repeater for the majority of winter. Low voltage and cold temperatures resulted in a frozen battery sometime between December and February. Once frozen the voltage dropped to near zero and the solar controller shut down completely. My repeater site is inaccessible once winter sets in due to snow level and steep grades. This spring I changed a few things. Keep in mind all my components need to be hiked up to about 2400 feet by hand. The components had to fit in or attach to a backpack or two. POWER GENERATION: This spring I added a 50 watt panel. This brought up the solar power to 80 watts total. The 80 watts of panels should generate enough solar energy on a 4 hour cloudy day to replace the 2.2-ish amps that the RT97 uses while in stand-by for 24 hours. I based this on monitoring the output of the panels on an overcast day this summer. I waited until the sun's elevation (as informed by a smartphone app) matched that it in the winter and saw the battery being charged at a rate of about 800 milliamps. 4 hours at 800 is 3.2 amps. That is 1 extra amp...in theory. POWER STORAGE: I upgraded to a 35 amp hour battery and put it underground by over a foot. Just being a foot underground shields the battery from the extreme highs and lows. At that depth theory says it should be at the avg daily temperature. If this setup works through the winter I am relocating the repeater to an even more remote location and will try to get the battery further down. Being underground also has the benefit of keeping the battery cool in the summer, which in theory, should prolong it's life. This 35 amp hour battery chould, in theory, keep the repeater running in stand-by mode for about 13 days or it could support about 14 hours of non-stop transmission in the winter with ZERO solar input. This factors in a 20% reduction in capacity due to cold temperatures. With these two upgrades the battery should really never be run low unless we have significant activity on the repeater without any days of decent solar generation. The larger battery helps store "extra" power from the sunny days and/or the additional hours of overcast days before/after winter solstice. This keeps the battery at a higher level of charge. Being kept at high charger levels and buried underground protect it through the colds snaps. Since I implemented the changes the repeater has been running 24/7. The past several weeks have been COLD here. The avg daily temperature as been between -5 and 5 degrees fahrenheit. Lows have been down below -20 degrees. For the past two weeks I have connected into the myGMRS national net for about 4 hours on Sundays. This has resulted in about 3 to 4 hours worth of transmission time each Sunday on the repeater as people talk across the nation. So far the battery appears to be doing fine as the repeater has not gone down. Hours of sunlight will continue to decrease through December at which point it will start picking up again. The skies will also start to be clear of clouds more often as we push past mid winter. So for me, it looks like 80 watts of solar power and a 35 amp hour battery are needed but again that is due to cold winter conditions with low sun levels. I don't know where you are but if you are in the lower 48 I would say the system could be more like my first attempt, 30 watts solar and a 9 amp hour battery and I would bet a 50 watt solar and 14 amp hour battery would give some extra head room. I have a few other posts up detailing my experiences with the RT97. If you register you can browse them. Solar Panel: https://www.amazon.com/Renogy-Monocrystalline-Efficiency-Charging-Applications/dp/B07GTH79JP/ref=sr_1_4?crid=2OBPM6JH5RIF2&keywords=50%2Bwatt%2Bsolar%2Bpanel%2Brenogy&qid=1637621917&sprefix=50%2Bwatts%2Bsolar%2Bpanel%2Breno%2Caps%2C318&sr=8-4&th=1 Solar Controller: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Q79TC2L?ref=nb_sb_ss_w_as-ypp-ro-model_ypp_ro_model_k0_1_10&crid=LSOHLRTW8QW2&sprefix=10+amp+sol Battery: https://www.batteriesplus.com/productdetails/slaa12=35c Battery-S-12330.pdf

If it is worth anything I try to connect into the national net on Sundays from around 4PM to 9PM Alaska Time. If you drive into the coverage of the ER repeater you could participate.

I got a lot of 7 VX-231s and a single VX-261 for 100 bucks. 3 of the radios came with batteries that were DOA. I bought two 2600 mah aftermarket batteries for about 25 dollars each and a single 1300 mah battery. I kept three radios for myself. I sold off the other working radios complete with a chargers and batteries for $35 to local users. I also have two of these PR400s. One sits at the house in the kitchen monitoring the repeater. It's primary job is being a radio for emcomm (think earthquakes). The second stays in my work vehicle with a second battery, again think emcomm. They have been good radios as well, just a but bulkier than the VX-231s. https://www.ebay.com/itm/255195094877?epid=112043976&_trkparms=ispr%3D1&hash=item3b6ad01f5d:g:6eQAAOSwMlhhdiVE&amdata=enc%3AAQAGAAACkPYe5NmHp%2B2JMhMi7yxGiTJkPrKr5t53CooMSQt2orsSg3Ye8yTWgOW7pmE1t838dtAS0BE%2BJwVPoCGtmELWsG9A7Wwl%2BUy0Kxov6AJhPnkdGmhUvMuwnqGmgPsNuTsfSnqDqqFm2w%2BDhAO6KKpRa2HUWgJXoa6P0Od3Tm%2Fowfmc9xvdwdrDq4pQ5yjfxw%2F3N6xaQwP5h0K8Cw5c8C6kgCpO9NgE3jozvmGSrHZv7QMIB1uOPw0HQyPl52jXlrjo1ooG7%2F6z0U%2FymFSCcNvLg4qxqwO0MkdOggnnr6BaRcfnazKRtawkbyDg9KmOlOEDJBGH2M3UZVrecxmH7%2FVZOXcgvlnhoNH511U4tJIXDxeXaCyfb%2B6RlLDddrQJLe%2F7xbfaIfVDdeIiWbmkSyNlT1wkmo8Z3wNHv5xCa4oPMxjckVdcw7eJ16V%2FvDZciHB1dHimZdmz%2FrGTaW%2Fy%2BjBxMkd7sHFQihAV0vh23Lerdynk4QzHjrIFjcnxqAaezrhiSvzgjNdiR2Df9KJThHkV7MkNl%2F%2FQLKYavMJmTQX8dS%2F4cMqZx%2B16enUMSVSFei%2FK6qsmMl946M2IYQc8w0qZ38LixU3J3FcFt1C9OowzV1XxquqmMyEqXKbvuOWovOLbhdPMCJhkz0n2ZwqxLcBas3nrtJ1PNxK7ScXRqJDV03TFdWEa8k0TrYvCx1g5a2qeYAj2fr2%2B2z8lxhhn3i%2FKbcJ%2BYnYDP0ZOlRcyDUpJxVGgdwNXkZpILqfIQrHxkAsQ%2FDP41L%2BmEyJr3Nn4MEVRX%2BnQMj5GoKBxPlF1QWAKyRkBYcXS2UKSUzdP1cBhpZpnDMbAhz%2Foxbr0FBlaayKSKpudoQxbHr%2F88r1tZisTLG4d|clp%3A2334524|tkp%3ABFBMgq_79KRf

Another option, A pair of used Vertex VX-231 radios can be had for 20-40 dollars each on eBay. Get a programming cable for about 20 bucks. Download the programming software for free (CE99). Now you have part 90 radios that blow the doors off CCRs.

You might be better off contacting Rich directly via private message.

Your repeater works on its own just like it normally would. You transmit to it, it hears your transmission and repeats it. So local users can talk to local users. When you attach and enable the linking bundle you can connect into a regional hub (177 for me in Alaska). Other linking users like yourself also connect to the regional hub. Anything that your repeater now hears is pushed out via the internet to the hub which distributes it to the other systems linked to it. Those other linked systems take the internet audio and transmit it out on their end for others to hear. Someone on that end can respond on their radio. Their signal goes into their repeater, to the link, to the hub, to your link, to your repeater which broadcasts it to your radio. The Pi can be enabled to use Wifi to connect back to the internet. I have mine setup that way. Ethernet is probably more reliable. The RT97S that is available on this site is plug and play with the myGMRS net from what I understand. https://shop.mygmrs.com/products/retevis-rt97s-portable-gmrs-repeater

This repeater is tied in with the myGMRS net now. If you are around on Sundays there should be some activity on it. If you check the netork map you can see when I have it actively linked. https://network.mygmrs.com/map

RT97 “Duty Cycle” I had a replacement RT97 come in today as a replacement for one that failed. The prior failed as it would not longer talk to a computer for programming. The TX/RX worked fine. I decided to test this new units “duty cycle” and heat displacement abilities. The first thing I did was open it up and see what it has internally to bridge the transmitter to the aluminum outer housing. The bottom of the RX/TX unit has large fins cast into its aluminum body. It appears to be bedded in thermal paste to make a conductive path the aluminum outer housing. I took a food thermometer and put it into the thermal paste. The unit was at 70 degrees. The “Test”: Stage One: I had it transmitting on high power. The transmission was broken up into three 1 minute sections with 10 seconds between each followed by a whole 2 minutes of TX. The transmitter rose from 70 degrees to 82 degrees. Hardly warm to the touch. (12 degree rise for 5 min Total TX w/ 40 seconds rest) Stage Two: I gave it about 2 minutes of rest and hit it with two more sessions of 2 minutes transmissions, separated by 20 seconds. It had fallen to just below 80 prior to and rose to 89 after.(9 degree rise for 4 min Total TX, w/ 2 min 20 seconds rest) Stage Three: I finally let it sit for 1 minute and did five more sessions of 2 minutes transmissions, separated by 20 seconds. The temp started at 88 and rose to 102 (14 degree rise for 10 Min Total TX w/ 2 min 20 seconds rest) End total of 19 min of TX w/ 3 min 20 seconds of rest. The temp rose from 70 degrees to 102 degrees. What I find interesting is that after the radio “warmed up” it took significantly more time to heat up further. I expected the 10 min spent TX'ing in Stage 3 to raise it more than it did. At the end after only about 60 seconds of rest it already had dropped to 94 degrees from a high of 102. I did not repeat this test on low power but I can only assume it would take longer to heat up. Being as my use with these repeaters are outdoors here in Alaska it doesn’t appear that heat will be an issue for me. During the winter our avg daily temp is around 20 degrees and we only get to an avg daily temp of 60-65 in the summer. This leaves a lot of head room. The cooler ambient temperatures should further increase the rate of heat dissipation as my home was 70 degrees to start with. Anyone see any flaws with my logic?

This is the exact setup I am running here in AK. Retevis RT97 somewhere between 2200 and 2600 feet up. Mounted the back of a 50 watt solar panel. The battery is a 35 amp/hour SLA which I have stored about 18" under ground to try and protect it from the extreme cold snaps we get. During the summer I can easily run a much smaller battery. A 9 amp hour battery and 30 watt panel was more than sufficient during our summer. The larger battery and panel is needed for cold temps and low sunlight in the winter here. There is a small solar controller mounted to the rear of the panel as well. I have an N9TAX single band GMRS antenna. The repeater can be heard out at 20-25 miles and I can get back into it at that distance with 5 watts. 1 watt under ideal circumstances. The repeater does suffer from desence a bit as I can always hear it further than I can get into it with an HT. If I drop it to low power it performs almost identically to my HTs (VX-231s and PR400s) in that if I can hear it, I can get back into it with about the same quality.

I opened up the new RT97 to see if there are any changes made to it. None that I could see besides the duplexer in this one is tuned for 550. My others were 625.

GMRS625 is running. The 700 doesn't seem to ever be up. I contacted the owner months back and was told they were updating it. Been trying to get the 625 on the myGMRS net but I am either doing something very wrong or the net isn't designed to do it the way I am trying. You can get into the 625 from the Point Mackenzie Area. I got in well enough with a 5 watt HT and a mag mount 1/4 wave antenna. Don't know if that helps you.

Working with Rich a bit...I am thinking my radio programming is part of the issue. I currently have PIN 8 set but I think I need to have PIN 12 set as well. When I put both set on "High" for active the node gets audio from the radio but it's locked open. When I have it set on "Low" it kinda works. It doesn't hold audio and just "clicks" on and off.

20211106_222443.mp4

Welp. I dunno. Maybe something is wrong on the hardware side of things. Here is the audio. Voice 001.m4a